{"id":45731,"date":"2025-07-07T10:24:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T10:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/45731\/"},"modified":"2025-07-07T10:24:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T10:24:17","slug":"aryna-sabalenka-admits-shes-copied-one-shot-directly-from-novak-djokovic-and-its-really-helping-her","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/45731\/","title":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka admits she’s copied one shot directly from Novak Djokovic and it’s really helping her"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Aryna Sabalenka had continued her flawless run at Wimbledon after a straight sets win over Elise Mertens.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sabalenka praised Mertens<\/a> after knocking her out of Wimbledon<\/a>, having won their round of 16 meeting 6-4, 7-6(7-4).<\/p>\n

The WTA<\/a> number one has yet to drop a set at the Grand Slam this year, with Sabalenka<\/a> representing the top seed at SW19.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka has been backed to win Wimbledon<\/a>, where she has never made it beyond the semi-finals stage. <\/p>\n

The Belarusian made it that far in both 2021 and 2023, having reached the finals of the three other Grand Slams.<\/p>\n

\"ArynaPhoto by Visionhaus via Getty ImagesThe shot Aryna Sabalenka admits she has directly copied from Novak Djokovic<\/p>\n

And she has now revealed receiving help from another star of the game, having been asked in her latest press conference which players she has come across that she thinks have the most insight and knowledge into the sport.<\/p>\n

After deep thought, she replied: \u201cHmm, trying to think right now. I think not like someone I played against, but definitely talking a lot to Novak [Djokovic<\/a>].<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Aryna Sabalenka sends heartfelt message to Emma Raducanu on social media after knocking her out of Wimbledon<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHe definitely has a lot of knowledge of the game, and it\u2019s really helped me a lot, several times. Basically whenever I talk to him, it\u2019s really helping me.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut someone I played against, I think actually [Ashleigh] Barty, she was always very smart, and she definitely understands the game quite well, and yeah I think she was the smartest one.\u201d<\/p>\n\nResult<\/strong><\/td>\nYear<\/strong><\/td>\nTournament<\/strong><\/td>\nSurface<\/strong><\/td>\nOpponent<\/strong><\/td>\nScore<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nWin<\/td>\n2019<\/td>\nFrench Open<\/td>\nClay<\/td>\nMarketa Vondrousova<\/td>\n6\u20131, 6\u20133<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nWin<\/td>\n2021<\/td>\nWimbledon<\/td>\nGrass<\/td>\nKarolina Pliskova<\/td>\n6\u20133, 6\u20137(4\u20137), 6\u20133<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nWin<\/td>\n2022<\/td>\nAustralian Open<\/td>\nHard<\/td>\nDanielle Collins<\/td>\n6\u20133, 7\u20136(7\u20132)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Ashleigh Barty Grand Slam finals<\/p>\n

And when asked for what she has spoken to 24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic about, she said: \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of things. One of the conversations went to managing energy, another one about the mental part of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen we had another conversation about mentally approaching those big finals. So yeah, I think mostly we\u2019re talking about the mental part of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd also one time he really helped me with the return. Now he\u2019s like always making fun of me copying his return.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019m like, \u2018Man, it\u2019s working\u2019. I mean I\u2019m copying the best. So actually probably I have to talk to him a bit more about tennis stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Where does Novak Djokovic currently rank among the best men\u2019s returners?<\/p>\n

It is certainly unsurprising that Sabalenka\u2019s mirroring of Djokovic\u2019s return is working wonders for her game.<\/p>\n

He is arguably the best returner the men\u2019s game has ever seen, the like of which may never be seen again.<\/p>\n

And Sabalenka is now shining in that regard, having achieved stunning success at the age of 27, with plenty more titles to come.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> What Andy Roddick simply refuses to hear said about Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon this year, \u2018I can\u2019t be told that\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Wimbledon represents her current opportunity, with Laura Siegemund now awaiting the three-time Grand Slam winner in the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n

Her helper Djokovic meanwhile is into the round of 16 at Wimbledon, where the sixth seed meets 11th seed Alex de Minaur.<\/p>\n

And very intriguingly, De Minaur tops the current ATP Tour<\/a> return leaders charts, with his next opponent currently down in 14th.<\/p>\n\nRank<\/strong><\/td>\nPlayer<\/strong><\/td>\nReturn rating<\/strong><\/td>\n% 1st serve return points won<\/strong><\/td>\n% 2nd serve return points won<\/strong><\/td>\n% return games won<\/strong><\/td>\n% break points converted<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n1<\/td>\nAlex de Minaur<\/td>\n163.1<\/td>\n32.4%<\/td>\n53.8%<\/td>\n30.0%<\/td>\n46.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n2<\/td>\nCarlos Alcaraz<\/td>\n162.5<\/td>\n34.9%<\/td>\n53.6%<\/td>\n31.1%<\/td>\n42.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n3<\/td>\nJannik Sinner<\/td>\n160.4<\/td>\n32.1%<\/td>\n56.9%<\/td>\n29.1%<\/td>\n42.3%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n4<\/td>\nTommy Paul<\/td>\n158.9<\/td>\n33.0%<\/td>\n52.3%<\/td>\n28.7%<\/td>\n44.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n5<\/td>\nFrancisco Cerundolo<\/td>\n153.2<\/td>\n32.1%<\/td>\n52.0%<\/td>\n26.4%<\/td>\n42.7%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n14<\/strong><\/td>\nNovak Djokovic<\/strong><\/td>\n148.5<\/strong><\/td>\n30.8%<\/strong><\/td>\n54.1%<\/strong><\/td>\n25.1%<\/strong><\/td>\n38.5%<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

ATP Tour return leaders (ATP Tour stats<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Djokovic is not, however, the player he used to be, but an exciting battle is certainly on the cards between the two talented returners.<\/p>\n

And like the Serbian, Australian icon Barty reached number one in the world rankings, with the three-time Grand Slam champion having clearly left a lasting mark on Sabalenka.<\/p>\n

She enjoyed a stunning career, winning all three of her Grand Slam finals, although was on the receiving end of a Grand Slam doubles finals defeat to Sabalenka and Mertens at the 2019 US Open.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka had continued her flawless run at Wimbledon after a straight sets win over Elise Mertens. Sabalenka…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":45732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[2477,1479,9125,62,1464,67,132,68,2071,2212],"class_list":{"0":"post-45731","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-aryna-sabalenka","9":"tag-atp","10":"tag-novak-djokovic","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-tennis","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us","16":"tag-wimbledon","17":"tag-wta"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114811467393190377","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}